XXII EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



serve d'une influence en dehors de tout j)rincipe et que l'on fasse tort au publie en forçant la nomina- 

 tion de l'incapacité ou de l'infériorité évidente de préférenee à la capacité réelle, cela peut être politi- 

 cj^ue... pour le moment présent; mais cela me paraît d'une politique dangereuse, même pour celui 

 qui y a recours, et, dans tous les cas, dangereuse pour le pays, aiiti-])atriotique, et d'une morale fort 

 équivoque. 



Je puis pai'ler de ce procédé si regrettable avec d'autant plus de liberté que tous les partis politi- 

 ques, si acliarnés les uns contre les autres à d'autres points de vue, sont malheureusement d'accord 

 sur celui-ci. 



Or il ne faudrait pas oublier que c'est enlever à l'ettbrt fait pour l'étude tout son stimulant, si 

 celui cpi étudie peut s'attendre à ce que la peine qu'il se sera donnée afin d'acquérir la science, puisse 

 être mise de côté par l'influence de quelque politicien en faveur d'un pétitionnaire même notoirement 

 incapable. 



Il ne faut pourtant pas se décourager en présence de tous ces obtacles, qui peuvent trouver leur 

 remède à la longue dans l'opinion publique. A nous de travailler, dans la mesure de nos moyens 

 d'action, à donner à cette o]iinion jniblique une bonne direction. 



En présence du vaste champ d'études qui est ouvert devant nous, tâchons d'obtenir de la jeunesse 

 instruite qu'elle s'}- lance avec ardeur, dans la direction de la vi-aie science, pour ne pas s'épuiser en 

 vains efforts, et qu'elle }' pei-sévèi'e un temps raisonnable. Elle peut avoir la confiance qu'elle finira 

 par triompher de tous les obstacles et j^ar être dignement récomj^ensée. 



The President was succeeded by the Vice-President, Prof Ct. Lawson, of Dalhousie Universitj^ : — 



MoNSGR. President and Fellows, Ladies and Gentlemen : — On an occasion like this, when 

 the members of the several Sections ai'e assembled together, we withdraw for the time from business 

 matters of detail, and from the special topics in literary and scientific discussion in which we may 

 have been engaged, and give our thoughts to subjects of a more general character, pertaining to the 

 Society's welfare as a whole, and in which all the members may be more or less deeply interested. To 

 this category belong questions regarding the constitution of our oi-ganisation, the relations of our 

 Society to other scientific and literary bodies, its working methods, its functions in research, and the 

 means that may be employed for making the results obtained serviceable for general utility, as in 

 promoting education and cultuie, and rendering available foi' common use information bearing upon 

 the multifarious purposes of life. The occasion invites us to look back upon the past, that we may 

 perchance discern how far our j^lan and methods have accomplished the objects aimed at, and what 

 lessons the results so far attained now read to us as guidance inîè profitable lines of work for the 

 futui'e. Snch considerations have been brought before us, more or less fully, in the annual addresses 

 of presiding offiers to which we have listened in former years. And these, with the exhaustive 

 address of our president, Monsgr. Hamel, just closed, might well be allowed to stand as a presentation 

 of our position. But I am reminded that a rule, unwritten but as yet unbroken in our short history, 

 requires some sign also fiom the Vice-President on these occasions. If, in deference to it, I offer a 

 few supplementary remarks, they must be brief 



Five years ago the Royal Society of Canada was organised, under the wise counsel of its founder, 

 the Marquis of Lome, who sought, by its means, to concentrate the labours of those engaged in 

 scientific and litciary work in the Dominion, whilst it might also form a nucleus around which active 

 local societies could gather, and receive and render mutual assistance and encouragement. Such a 

 means of cooperation, it was thought, would give an impetus to original research, and lead to increase 

 of knowledge. But, in view of the work of this kind that was already being done, and of the increase 

 to be expected, it was felt that j)rovision should be made for the publication of the results in the form 

 of original papers, so far at least as they had bearing upon the histoiy and literature of Canada, its 

 natural phenomena, pi'oducts and institutions. Such means of publication appeared to be not a mere 



